Vokoun, Zednik help Panthers down Lightning

Feb 3, 2008 - 5:08 AM

TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- For the second straight night, Tomas
Vokoun kept the Florida Panthers in the game long enough for the
offense to win it late.

Vokoun matched a season high with 44 saves and Richard Zednik
scored the game-winning goal with 65 seconds remaining in the
third period as the Panthers skated to a 3-2 victory over the
rival Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night in a Southeast
Division battle.

Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and captain Olli Jokinen also tallied
for Florida, which has won back-to-back contests for the first
time since capturing three straight from December 16-20.

The 31-year-old Vokoun, who made 29 saves and was perfect in the
shootout in Friday's 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks,
was sensational again in this one. He turned aside 18 shots in
the first period, 15 more in the second and 11 in the third.

"At times, we were in trouble in our defensive zone," Panthers
coach Jacques Martin said of Vokoun's busy night. "We would get
the puck and, instead of having the poise and moving it to find
the open man, we got rid of it quickly."

The Panthers received an assist from the boards on Zednik's
game-winner.

Defenseman Jassen Cullimore unleashed a slap shot from the right
point that went wide and bounced off the end boards to Zednik
on the opposite side of the net. Zednik fired the puck past
unsuspecting netminder Karri Ramo to give Florida a 3-2 edge
with just over a minute left.

"We created chances," Zednik said. "We got points. I saw that
everybody was on the other side and no one was covering me. He
shot it off the boards and it came right to me. I wanted to go
upstairs, a little over his head."

The Lightning peppered Vokoun with shots all night and held a
2-1 advantage until Jokinen tallied on a power play with 5:56
left in the third period.

"This is a tough one to swallow because this was a game we had
to win against a team in our division, at home," Tampa Bay
defenseman Dan Boyle said. "It's very, very frustrating."

Jokinen started the play when he delivered a pass to Bouwmeester
at the right faceoff circle. Ramo made a skate save on
Bouwmeester's attempt, but the rebound came right to Jokinen in
the slot, and the Finn fired a wrist shot into the vacant net.

Florida received the man advantage as Boyle was sent to the
penalty box for closing his hand of the puck.

"Originally, I was going to put it down and play it, but there
was a guy right on me and I didn't want to take a chance getting
it knocked off and having him go down by himself," Boyle said
of the penalty. "It was one of those questionable calls, and it
cost us a power-play goal."

"It's the right call," Lightning coach John Tortorella admitted.
"Danny simply can't do that. He can't. And I watched the ref
and thought we were going to get away with it. (Referee Tom
Kowal) hesitated and then put his hand up."

The Lightning trailed, 1-0, after the first period, but former
Panther Chris Gratton tied the contest at 4:12 of the middle
session. Vokoun managed to stop defenseman Brad Lukowich's shot
from the right point as well as Craig MacDonald's rebound
attempt, but Gratton finished the sequence with his ninth goal
of the season.

Vaclav Prospal gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 edge with 1:43 remaining in
the second with his 22nd goal.

Boyle took the puck into the offensive zone and fired a shot
from the top of the right circle that was stopped by Vokoun.
Prospal then stuffed the rebound between the pads of the
netminder.

Florida nearly tied the game in the closing seconds of the
period as Nathan Horton had a breakaway after coming out of the
penalty box, but Ramo denied his opportunity.

"We really needed this," Cullimore said. "We were struggling,
and even though we haven't really played our best hockey these
last two games, we came away with wins. The main thing right
now is to get points."

Ramo stopped 29 shots for the Lightning, who went 2-3-0 on their
five-game homestand.

"That's the way hockey games go," Ramo said. "We had our own
chances and didn't score. That was the key to this game."